Simon was
made Archbishop of Canterbury in the summer of 1375. A prematurely aged
King Edward 111 was declining in health and depending a great deal on
his son and heir Edward the Black Prince. However, sadly the Prince was
also a slowly dying man having been infected by a fatal germ in Spain.

The Prince
died on Trinity Sunday, 8 June 1376. His body lay in state at Westminster
for nearly four months until his burial at Canterbury on Michaelmas Day
at which Simon officiated.

In June the
following year the King died and four weeks later, on 16 July 1377 the
Black Prince's son, Edward's grandson, was crowned Richard 11 at Westminster
Abbey by Simon. The Coronation marked the highpoint of his career as a
churchman.

Richard was
only nine years old and usually with a minor a Regency would be set up
until he reached his majority. In the light of later events it was a tragedy
that this did not happen in Richard's case.

The only
possible candidate for Regent was Richard's uncle John of Gaunt, Duke
of Lancaster, probably the greatest noble in late medieval England. He
was deeply unpopular, so much so that his candidature for Regent was ruled
out.Top of page

Simon's
Building Work at Canterbury

It is doubtful
whether Simon ever returned to Sudbury as Archbishop
although of course he maintained contact
with his brother John, now Warden or Custos of the College. He became
heavily involved with building work at Canterbury, determined to make
the city and Cathedral worthy of their status.

The old Norman
nave of the Cathedral, hurriedly built just after The Conquest, was in
a state of bad repair and unsafe and had been so for years. The decision
to demolish it and rebuild from scratch came at the instigation of Simon
though approval had to be sought from Christchurch Priory.

No doubt
the fact that he was prepared to subsidise the costs by some 3,000 marks,
equivalent to one and a half million pounds in our money today, helped.

He was responsible
for the strengthening of the city walls and the rebuilding of the great
Westgate. The King's master mason, Henry Yevely, provided the designs
for both nave and fortifications. He was no stranger to Simon having worked
at St. Paul's when he was Bishop of London.

Canterbury
Nave is recognised as one of the greatest works of Perpendicular architecture
in the country. Simon never lived to see it through, credit for that goes
to Prior Thomas Chillenden who completed what Simon had begun.Top of page

St. Leonard's
Hospital (Colney's Hospital)

John Colney,
a prosperous merchant of Sudbury, had the misfortune to succumb to Leprosy.
In 1372 he asked Simon to draw up certain ordinances for the control and
governing of a hospital he was building outside the town in Melford Road.

The Hospital
was in the form of three self-contained units one of which Colney himself
would occupy as Warden or Governor. Two other lepers would each have a
unit. After Colney's death the vacancy would be filled and one would be
chosen as Governor to whom the others would obey.

If a leper
died, or was expelled, a replacement was to be found within six months,
failing which the spiritual father of St. Gregory's would nominate a third.

The annual
income was divided into five portions, two to the Governor, two to the
Brethren and one for maintenance. This fifth portion to be kept with the
writings of the House, in a common chest in a safe place in some church
in Sudbury.

If the statutes
should not be kept after the Founder's death the revenues were to be divided
between the church of St. Gregory and the chapel of St. Anne, annexed
to the same, in equal portions for the souls of Colney the Founder, and
of Nigel and Sarah Theobald and all the faithful departed.

The Hospital
was rebuilt as three almshouses in 1619-20 and continued to work well
under Simon's statutes until the last Master died in 1813.

In 1867 the
net income was given towards St. Leonard's Cottage Hospital in Newton
Road via the Charity Commissioners. The almshouses were demolished in
1858 and replaced by a pair of double tenements which still stand today
on the Melford Road near Colney's Close.Top of page

The Peasant's
Revolt 13-15th June 1381

It was inevitable
that it would happen it was just surprising that it hadn't happened sooner.
The causes were many and they started in the aftermath of The Black Death
of 1348-9 that wiped out a third of the population that meant a crucial
shortage of labour. The surviving labour forces were able to exploit the
situation as for the first time competitive wages were offered.

In 1351 the
government brought in The Statute of Labourers with a ruling that rents
and wages should be fixed in an attempt to curb the situation. Successive
governments did the same but with little success. The labourers resented
these attempts to peg their wages. They had no intention of giving up
their new found bargaining power in many cases, freedom.

Then there
were the long drawn out wars with France and the continuous payment of
taxes to keep them going. There was a growing animosity towards the Flemings,
skilled craftsmen invited in by Edward III to show the English how to
make good woollen cloth. They kept to themselves and dressed differently
and they sent their money back to Flanders; or so it was said.

There was
no single cause for the rebellion but a feeling by the population of being
wronged on a number of scores. The nation had lost confidence in its government,
its clergy, and itself. Each individual felt they knew who was responsible
for their grievance and when the opportunity arose would seek satisfaction.

Marking
the Anniversary in 2014As the anniversary is upon us I just wondered if the following could
be added to the website entry upon the town's part in the Great Rising.
It's from RB Dobson's The Peasants' revolt of 1381, concerning the time
when the rising began to collapse.

"The
rebels who had been scattered, reassembled once more and went to Colchester
where they began to incite the townsmen by means of urgent entreaties,
threats and arguments to yet new disturbances and madness. But after failing
to do this, they moved on to Sudbury. For they knew that Lords Fitzwalter
and John Harlestone were following their route with an armed force. Suddenly,
when the rebels were making their usual proclaimations on behalf of the
commons, this force rushed upon them unexpectedly, killing as many as
they wished. The remainder were allowed to live or sent to prison".

I've also
been 'digging' around the detail of the headless bodies found near the
croft. The number 30 mooted is exactly the same figure of skeletons unearthed
during the diggings on the site of the Holy Sepulchre church. Are these
one and the same I wonder? If so it's disputable whether they were victims
of the retribution or just the usual remains to be found near any Medieval
chapel.

This Thursday
(12th June) a few of us are setting out from Liston Church on a walk past
Lyons old Manor and onto Cavendish. Any Sudbury History Society are welcome
to join us to mark the occasion, with a quick refreshment planned at the
George before the walk back. We shall be at the crossroads in the village
at 6pm.

Darren
Clarke (Society member)Top of page

Simon
the Chancellor

The biggest
mistake in his career was when he accepted the post of Chancellor, even
though a few years earlier it had been declared by Parliament that "
. . .. none but laymen henceforth be made Chancellor, Treasurer, or other
great officer of the realm..."

Parliament
assembled at Northampton in November 1380 to hear from him the dreadful
financial situation the government was in.

The French
expeditions had emptied the Treasury. There were three months wages due
at the garrisons of Brest, Cherbourg and Calais. The king's jewels were
in pawn to the City of London as a surety for a loan of £5,000.
The king needed the sum of £160,000 if they were to continue the
war with France. There were troubles in Flanders that meant that exports
of wool were down.

It was decided
that there was no withdrawing from the war and so it was up to them to
raise the money. They were given three options, a sales tax on all mercantile
transactions, a wealth tax on property, or a poll tax amounting to one
shilling and three groats per head on all persons over the age of fifteen.

They settled
on a poll tax to raise £100,000 if the Church raised the rest. There
was one proviso, the richest would pay up to six groats per man and wife
so that the tax would fall less heavily on the others. A groat was the
equivalent of four pence.

Parliament
may have been in agreement but the Nation was not. The Peasants couldn't
and therefore wouldn't pay. They rebelled and the revolt reached its climax
with the dreadful events of 13-15th June when an estimated
100,000 peasants and supporters entered London.

On Friday
14th June the boy King Richard rode out from the Tower for a pre-arranged
meeting with the mob at Mile End, he was showing amazing courage. After
his departure nobody raised the drawbridge.

When the
meeting with the rebels was over Richard returned to Baynards Castle near
Blackfriars. Wat Tyler, the leader of the rebels went to the Tower with
400 men and met with no resistance. They found Simon and Hales, the Treasurer,
at prayer in, St. John's Chapel in the White Tower. They were dragged
out of the building and taken to Tower Green where they were clumsily
decapitated.

Their heads
were fixed on to poles and paraded to Westminster and back to London Bridge
where they were fixed above the gatehouse, the traditional place to display
the heads of traitors.Top of page

The
Suffolk Revolt

On the 12th
June a detachment of Essex men led by a priest, John Wrawe, came over
Ballingdon Bridge and were met by the Vicar of All Saints, Geofftey Parftey
and a group of Sudbury men. They made their way to Liston Hall, about
three miles north of Sudbury, which belonged to Richard Lyons a wealthy
merchant and notorious moneylender and destroyed it.

They then
moved on to Cavendish in search of Chief Justice Cavendish who was responsible
for enforcing the Statute of Labourers in East Anglia. He had fled after
storing his valuables in the church tower. The rebels demanded entry into
the tower and carried of his goods.

They then
went on to Melford where they stopped for refreshment and then made their
way to St. Edmundsburywhere the Prior, John Cambridge, had been murdered
by his own serfs. Eventually they tracked Cavendish down at Lakenheath
where they beheaded him and carried his head back to St. Edmundsbury for
display.
It was the Bishop of Norwich who restored order in East Anglia. None of
the promises made by the King werehonoured and the leaders of the rebellion
were executed. Wat Tyler's head replaced Simon's on London Bridge. Simon's
body was taken to Canterbury where his tomb is close to the Black Prince's.
His head was rescued and brought back to his beloved St. Gregory's College,
where it still is today.